The Elemental Experiments
by Nerdwaifuu
Summary: After an accident at Borg Labortories, Zane's life is thrown out of line. The only clue he has is from a journal that he has been told to find. Unfortunately, more chaos occurs as Zane and his friends becomes one step closer to figuring out what is happening behind the closed off labortories.
1. chapter 1

_Tick tick tick tick..._

All the students stared intensely at the clock, as if it was a ticking time bomb ready to explode once the period was over. As the teacher spoke and no one listened, all watched the minute hand slowly making it's way to the 6 while the hour hand was moving in between the 2 and the 3. Once the hand touched the 6, the bell rang. The room then erupted in talking and shuffling of papers and other supplies.

"Alright kiddos, remember to read pages 208 to 214 and answer the Section Assessment questions. These are due as soon as you walk into the door." Mr. L told the students, triggering a chorus of complaints and groans.

One student with blonde, slicked back hair and vibrant icy blue eyes shook his head as his classmates complained as if Mr. L gave them a 20 page report they had to do by tomorrow, not just seven textbook pages and five easy questions asking about minerals where the answers could be found in the text.

All the students flooded out into the hallway, rushing to their lockers with the eagerness to head home. As the blonde teen exited the room, two of his friends came strolling, or rolling in one's case, up to him.

"Hey Zane!" The caramel brown haired boy exclaimed as he rolled by on his new blue heelys that he got himself for Christmas.

"Greetings Jay and Cole." Zane responded, his thin lips forming a small smiled as he examined the two boys. Both were very sweaty because they just got back from gym, and Cole had his now longer hair in a bun and was already carrying his stuff since he stayed after for football. Jay on the other hand, even though he was clearly either too tired or lazy to change out of his gym clothes, but still had enough energy to act like his usual energetic self.

"Alright, heelys squad! Let's go!" Jay shouted, rolling away from Zane and Cole. Cole shook his head and followed Jay with Zane right behind. They both shook their head as some older students noticed Jay rolling through the hallway and soon glare at the other two.

"Oh come on guys! Don't put those heelys to waste!" Jay exclaimed before reaching his locker. Both Zane and Cole promised to at least wear the white and black heelys Jay bought for them, but neither of them ever took part of Jay's "Heely squad" during school hours,

"Woah, Jay, no need to embarrass yourself in front of the seniors... being a freshmen is bad enough." a spikey, brown haired teen with a red hoodie, who just reached Jay's locker, told Jay. His brown eyes hidden behind the black lenses of his sunglasses. Jay rolled his eyes as he and Zane opened their lockers and gathered their stuff.

"Oh shut the eff up Kai. I don't care what the seniors think of me, especially now. All I need to worry about is that damn Bio test coming up..." Jay started to trail off in the end. One thing most freshmen worried about was the upcoming Biology, or Living Environment, tests.

"Oh well, that's your problem... except the Bio part. Ugh, why couldn't I be in honors classes last year... lucky you Zane." Kai grumbled, tugging at his red backpack. Out of the group of friends, Zane had high enough grades to be in Biology in 8th grade, even though Jay was also qualified. Instead, Jay got put into the other honors course. Earth Science, which Zane had to take this year.

"Oh well. Any whoooooo, you guys wanna come over to my parents summer house? I need help setting up that halloween party for this Friday." Kai asked the other three. Unfortunately, all of them shook their heads.

"Got Football practice, then my dad is dragging me to dance classes."

"Nah fam, I need to study for Bio and got a book re- I mean, "literature analysis" for language arts."

"Sorry Kai, I wish I could... however, my father is actually going to be home for once. Echo wants me to spend time with them."

Kai let out a sigh and shrugged.

"Okay, totally understand. Maybe Lloyd or Skylor are free tonight..." Kai responded, before walking away. Jay then cleared his throat and said "Don't have too much fun Kai."

"With which one though?" Kai winked before disappearing into the crowd. Jay chuckled and shook his head as he closed his locker.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow. Zane, tell Dr. J and lil' Echo I said hi. Cole, have fun at practice and acting like a ballerina. Heelys squad OUT!" Jay said before rolling away, also disappearing into the crowd. Cole did a little face palm before walking the other direction to the gym.

"Bye Zane. Also tell Dr. Julien and Echo I said hi." Cole said and quickly waved goodbye before disappearing as well, leaving Zane alone. Zane shot Cole one last smile and then found his way outside. He headed towards the bike rack, grabbed his old white bike, and quickly made his way to the nearby middle school. He put his bike onto the bike rack and jogged over to the car loop. He searched through the few children until he found his copper brown haired brother in the crowd. Unfortunately, after many times of trying to get his brother's attention by waving at him, Zane soon resorted to yelling his name.

"Echo Julien!" Immediately, Echo turned towards him and sprinted through all the kids until he reached Zane, wrapping his arms around his thin waist.

"Big brother! I thought you forgot about me! You were 25 minutes later than usual..." Zane grabbed out his phone to check the time. Echo was right, he was super late this time. Probably standing around while Jay and Kai talked wasn't the best idea...

"Oh... um... sorry about that..." Zane rubbed the back of his head as Echo giggled.

"It's fine. Let's head home. Hopefully mean old Stepmother isn't home today..." Zane smiled as he lead Echo to the bike rack and Echo hopped onto Zane's bike, his arms around Zane's waist.

"Yeah... hopefully not..." Zane responded before he started pedaling towards home. Both boys didn't enjoy the woman their father decided to marry after Echo was born. Once Echo was born, their mother unfortunately died in child birth. Their father thought they still needed a mother figure to help out, especially since Dr. Julien would be at work until late at night. However, the woman he chose to marry, Elizabeth Snow, drives the boys insane.

Luckily, when the two reached the driveway, their stepmother's car was not present.

 _'Oh hallelujah...'_ both of them thought as they went inside the house. The house wasn't much, but it had just enough for the whole family. When they walked in, the smell of tea filled the whole house. Yep, their father was definitely home.

"Father!" Echo squealed as Dr. Julien exited the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand. The young Julien ran over to Dr. Julien and hugged him as tight as he could. A huge smile appeared on the older man's face as he hugged his son back, but only with one arm. Echo then soon let go of Dr. Julien and dragged Zane into a big group hug. Their father began to laugh as he held his sons close to him. After a minute, they soon released and questions began to flood out of his mouth.

"So, did you discover anything new? Any new inventions? Did anything explode? What project are you and Borg working on now? Are the coffee machines fixed yet? Did anyone d-" Zane covered Echo's mouth before he could finish the last question. Dr. Julien started to chuckled.

"Oh you are so precious. But, I can't release any information about my projects yet." Dr. Julien said, booping Echo on the nose. The soon to be 12 year old tried to use his puppy eye strategy, but it had no effect on Dr. Julien.

"Well, no more talk about the lab. It's family time." Dr. Julien told the two boys, picking up Echo and carrying him to the dining room table where a game of clue was set up. Then, from there, the three played a couple rounds of clue until they heard a car pulling into the drive way. When the headlights shone through the front window, Zane and Echo scrambled to their rooms and worked on their homework while Dr. Julien quickly cleaned up the game before his wife opened the front door.

"Hello honey." The two overheard Dr. Julien say quickly to Elizabeth as she set her bag down on the now cleared dining room table. Soon enough, the parent's voices became muffled and quieter so Echo nor Zane could hear what they are now arguing about this time.

Both sigh as Echo goes into Zane's room and works in there until Dr. Julien came in, a frown on his face. He sighed before telling Echo to leave for a second so he can speak to Zane alone. Zane and Echo exchanged confused looks before Echo obeyed, closing the door right behind him. Many questions raced through the blonde's mind. Usually his father did this after his stepmother told him something about Zane.

"Son..." Zane was ready to hear it. All this school year, he has been avoiding home. He knows he's strange and doesn't fit in, nothing Dr. Julien could say could change other's opinions. Everyone thinks he's depressed. Everyone makes fun of him. What could Dr. Julien try to tell Zane about this time?

"You care about Echo... correct?" Zane's heart skipped a beat. Such a strange question...

He nodded slowly. Dr. Julien grabbed out a small leather journal and stared intensely at it, like the students in Zane's Earth Science class at the end of the day.

"Zane... promise to me... if I'm ever gone, make sure you are always there for Echo. Keep him safe, and always be careful. And..." He pointed at the cover of the journal.

"Find this journal. No matter what happens. Echo and this journal should be your first priority..." Dr. Julien tells him with a stern voice. Zane can clearly see the fear in his eyes, yet his whole face was not showing any clear emotions from what he could observe. His stomach felt like it was in a knot, his mind was spinning as it tried to figure out the reason for this conversation. Although, Zane just nodded and acted like he understood. Then, Dr. Julien put the journal back from where he got it and left the room. Fear and confusion filled Zane's body as he went back to his homework. His brain was trying to wrap around what he was talking about.

These thoughts continued to swarm in his mind even when he decided to try to go to sleep.

 _"Find this journal. No matter what happens. Echo and this journal should be your first priority..."_

 _'Why?_ _What will happen?'_

 ** _A/N: Hello. This is my first story on . Hopefully you like it. Btw, this is more of an alternate universe, so things will not exactly be like in the show. Also, I made Zane and Echo human, so yeah. Hope you all like it._**


	2. Chapter 2

_"Zane... promise to me... if I'm ever gone, make sure you are always there for Echo. Keep him safe, and always be careful. And..._ _Find this journal. No matter what happens. Echo and this journal should be your first priority..."_

From the moment he opened his to the moment he fell into deep sleep, these words filled every gap in Zane's brain. He already had trouble falling asleep the night that he heard those words, staying up wondering the context behind these easy to follow instructions. He knew that he's going to have a lot of trouble getting to sleep until he understands.

The next day, the thoughts kept the most focused student in 9th grade very distracted through the day. With every class, Zane barely could do any work or not space out. With this happening, he also skipped most of his free periods to go into the library to think instead of going to lunch, leaving his friends without him. He didn't care if he was missing the only chance he can eat in school or talk with all of his friends. At the end of the day, Jay does get suspicious of course.

"Yo, where were you today?" He asked, raising his clipped eyebrow. When he asked this, he startled Zane, who wasn't expecting him to actually ask.

"Um... it's nothing... just wanted to get some homework done..." Zane fibbed, feeling like his heart just dropped into the pits of his stomach. He bit his tongue before he could say anything else. He knew he should tell someone what is bothering him before he feels like exploding, but Jay couldn't do much to help... none of them could...

"Okay... well, Kai still needs help with the party so you should come help." Zane slowly nodded. A good distraction for this distraction.

After school, Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, and also Lloyd go to the house to get decorations up and check up on the snacks and drinks. Then, once they finished putting all of the decorations up, they sat around and did homework together before everyone went their separate ways. Once out of the house, Zane felt a rush of fear when Dr. Julien's words entered his mind yet again.

"Darn it..." He muttered to himself, getting onto his bike and biked all the way home. Unfortunately, his father was not home today. Zane will not be able to find out more about the mysterious journal, unless he texted him. In bed, he pondered if he should shoot a quick text asking about it.

 _"He's too busy..."_

 _"He wouldn't even answer..."_

 _"I'm probably overthinking..."_ With that in mind, he could never get Dr. Julien's words out of his brain. This continued for the next two days.

Everyday, he had the same routine at school. Go to class, be unfocused, just go to the library whenever you could. While he sat alone in the library, he felt guilty. He is just sitting here, keeping to himself while his friends are probably wondering what is going on and what's with the sudden change of mood. He could easily just let everything off of his chest if he told the others or even a guidance counselor, but he didn't want to worry them.

Zane sighed, knowing he's just going to do this again the next day, and the next day, and then on Monday and so on. Which he was mostly correct. He did the exact same thing on Thursday. By this time, he's surprised that Jay nor Cole was trying to search for him to see where he goes during lunch.

On Friday however, plans had changed. In the morning, the library was going to be closed all day because the eighth graders are coming and doing something in there all day. That meant Zane can either go to lunch or find somewhere else to think. But, since today was the day of Kai's Halloween party, he decided against being distant today. He finally had something else to think about.

When lunch finally came around, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Lloyd were pretty surprised to see Zane actually coming to lunch today. However, they resisted asking questions about him and where he has been all week, but they went on about the party that night. They talked about costumes, food, refreshments, music, and ending it off with if they should have a sleepover as well.

Soon enough, the bell sent everyone their separate ways. Fortunately, for the rest of the day, any thoughts of what Dr. Julien said on Monday escaped the teenager's mind. Zane was now able to focus and participate in the next few classes without anything disrupting his train of thought.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang, sending everyone off to their lockers and to hurry home or to afterschool activities. Zane and his friends, and many other students, hurried home to get ready for Kai's Halloween party. After getting Echo home from school, Zane locked himself in one of the bathrooms with a pile of old costumes that he hoped will still fit him. In the end, Zane knew none of the costumes he owned were good enough for attending his first highschool party...

He soon decided to take a shower and get cleaned up instead of wasting time trying to figure out what to wear. He stripped down to nothing and got into the shower, where his mind was allowed to wander wherever it wanted while the hot water poured onto his naked body. A hour soon passed and he turned off the water once all the soap was out of his hair and off his body. He grabbed the nearest towel and dried off before wrapping the towel around his waist and getting out of the shower. As soon as his two wet feet touched the bath rug, there were three quick knocks on the door.

"What do you want Echo?" Zane asked, walking towards the locked, white bathroom door.

"Your buddy, Jay, passed by and said to give this to you..." Zane sighed, unlocking and opening the door a bit only so that Echo can pass the rectangular cardboard box to him. Once the box was in Zane's possession, he went to close the door, but Echo grabbed the handle and held the door open.

"Oh I wanna see in the box? Can I please come in? Is it a costume?" Zane shook his head.

"No brother, you can't come in... I need my privacy..."

"Awww, alright... just show me what it is after you get dressed..." Echo pouted as he walked away from the door, which allowed Zane to close it and lock it. Now, it was time to see what was in the box. He set the cardboard box on the bathroom counter and opened it, revealing something sparkling blue.

"Oh no... he didn't..." He did. Zane knew what Jay had in the box. Ever since Disney came out with a certain movie, Jay has been joking about this for years. The time had finally come...

Zane pulled out the sparkling icy blue dress suit with a long nearly see-through cape that was a lighter shade of ice blue or nearly white. Zane began to curse under his breath as he got into the costume, knowing Jay will be very mad if he didn't wear the costume that clearly he got someone to take their time and make it.

Once he got the costume on, he ran his hand through his blonde hair, making it somewhat more messy. He began to shake his head as he picked up his other clothes and exited the bathroom, immediately running into the excited 12 year old boy.

"Holy moly..." Echo began to chuckle, then bursted in song.

"LET IT GOOOOOOO! LET IT GOOOOOOO!" Zane just ignored him, making his way into his room as his brother followed him, continuing to sing Let It Go. Luckily, it was basically time for Zane to go, so he found his white hoodie, put it on and hid the cape of the costume inside the hoodie, leaving the icy blue pants and boots as the only thing that could be seen.

"I have to go Echo. Be good. See you later tonight." Zane quickly told Echo before running out the door and hopping onto his bike, ready to make his way to Kai's party.

 ** _A/N: Welps, sorry for this chapter being shorter than the last. Hopefully you guys like it. Peace. ️_**


	3. Chapter 3

It was nearly nightfall by the time Zane finally found his way to the party. The front yard was filled with highschoolers of actually all grades, which was surprising to see even seniors came to the party. He rode up to the drive way and hid his bike in the garage of the summer house, then snuck his way into the backyard. Knowing how many people were hanging out in the front yard, Zane couldn't even imagine what was going inside.

Once in the backyard, Zane walked by the pool and sat down on one of the lounge chairs, watching other guests pushing each other into the cold water. Zane chuckled a bit while seeing everyone having fun, but soon got startled as a warm hand grabbed his shoulder, letting out a small gasp.

"Don't need to worry, it's just me." A familiar voice reassured him. Zane looked over to the hand and his icy blue eyes met with the hazel eyes of one of his friends, who seemed to be dressed as Brian Johnson, the lead singer of AC DC. In his other hand, his fingers wrapped around an empty red solo cup.

"H-hello Cole." Zane stuttered, still not recovered from the little spook Cole gave him. The raven haired teen began to chuckle, sitting down on the lounge chair right next to Zane's.

"Heh, nice costume?" Cole said, reminding Zane of the costume that Jay got him and the hoodie he had on, hiding the majority of his costume. Zane scratched the back of his head, not knowing how to respond.

"I believe the hoodie isn't part of the costume. Why don't you take it off?" Cole asked, motioning towards the zipper. Zane's cheeks began to blush as he remembered how _"revealing"_ he believed the top was. But, without an answer from Zane, Cole quickly unzipped the hoodie and revealed the sparkling blue top and long cape. Zane finally caught on though and tried to zip up his hoodie again, but it was too late.

"Holy shit, Jay actually got someone to make it..." Cole whispered, his cheeks becoming a bit red too. Zane's arms were crossed, trying to hide his revealed chest. Cole started chuckling again, grabbing one of Zane's arms and moving it out of the way and pulling it close to him, then setting the cup down and slipped Zane's hoodie off.

"It suits you... you know. It's kinda..." Cole fakes a cough, then finishes his sentence quietly.

"Hot..." Zane begins to blush, yet again not knowing how to react. He never expected his night to start with this.

"Um... th-thanks?" Zane finally responds, looking away from Cole. He could hear his friend sigh, holding Zane's hand close to his chest.

"Well, my king, how about we head inside and hang out or whatever." Zane's shoulders shrugged. He realized how nice it was out, and he was enjoying the fresh air. He rather wanted to stay outside instead of enter the hell inside.

"I would... prefer to stay out here..." Cole nodded and stood up, letting go of Zane's cold hand. Immediately, Zane missed Cole's warmth as Cole went inside. He held his pale hand close to his revealed chest, a feeling of loneliness flooding over him. Fortunately, the sound of the sliding door that led to the back opening caught his attention.

"Buddy, c'mon. I've heard you got a good taste in music. Save Dareth and I from the songs my classmates like." A senior in a smaurai looking costume was telling Cole, who was carrying two red solo cups this time.

"No way Ronin. Too busy." He responded before sitting back down.

"Dammit... I'm tired of feeling like I'm at a middle school dance." Ronin mumbled, getting a look from the other senior with him, who was wearing a brown ninja suit.

"Not everyone has the same music choices as you..." was the last thing Cole and Zane heard the two senior students say before heading inside. Cole began to shake his head as he held out one of the cups to Zane. He hesitantly takes the cup, examining the dark liquid within the plastic cup.

"It's just soda... I know you wouldn't like anything else they had... however, I want to ask you something?" Zane began to bite his lip. He knew where this conversation was going.

"What is it?..." he asked before taking a small sip of the soda. With a sigh, Cole asked his question, or questions.

"Where were you during lunch? Why were you even more distant? What is bothering you? What is going on in that big brain of yours?" His pale hands started to shake, causing Zane to grasp the red solo cup tighter. The one time he thought he could forget about it, he couldn't. There's no escape... unless...

"Well..." he sighed and told his tale. He started with what happened on Monday. What his father told him. How it kept him awake at night. It made him toss and turn while he pondered on what he could mean. It turned his gears in his mind during class, acting as a giant distraction to his education. He was surprised him possibly overthinking such simple statements hasn't driven him mad. Although, he never dared to ask about it nor let it off his chest.

Cole sat through his entire rant, listening to each and every word of what his fellow classmate had to say. Guilt filled him, knowing that he had noticed him clearly disturbed, but he didn't try to help him figure this out at all. In the end, both sat silently, staring at the crystal clear pool filled with a handful of highschoolers having the times of their lifes.

Then, suddenly, Cole wrapped his arm around Zane, holding him close to him.

"Promise me not to hide anything from me anymore... you always worry me, you know." Cole whispered in Zane's ear. He slowly nodded, feeling safe in Colés arms. Like nothing can harm or bother him anymore. Like everything is actually perfect...

 _Ring ringgggggg~ ring ringggggggg~_

The sound of Zane's phone interrupted the moment, causing both to quickly break apart.

"Sorry..." Zane muttered before retrieving his phone out of his hoodie, which ended up on the ground. He checked the number, seeing it was actually his father. A look of worry was his face as he answered the phone. Dr. Julien barely calls...

"H-hello?"

 _"I love you son..."_

 _Click._

Zane slowly lowered his phone. The two freshmen looked at each other with worry and confusion in their eyes, until their train of thought was disrupted by a scream.

"FIRE!"

Everyone flooded into the front yard, staring at the rising flames of something in the distance. Multiple firetrucks, ambulances, and News vans passed by, heading towards the fire. All the party attendees chatted, clearly scared or worried. One question caught Zane and Cole off guard.

"Yo, ain't Borg Laboratory's over in that area?" Once Zane remembered that his father was at the lab this Friday night, he hopped onto his bike and went down a short cut to the laboratory. Many other people followed him, curious of what actually was getting burned down. Once Zane found his way to the lab, he felt like falling to his knees and screaming. The entire building was on fire, looking like it was a huge torch. People were being rushed out of the building, but from what he could see, none resembled Zane's father... but he could see a few of his fathers co-workers and an injured Cyrus Borg, being carried into an ambulance. Zane walked over to multiple co-workers, asking about his father. Each one shrugged, saying they haven't seen him. The feeling of just breaking down and letting everything out grew and grew, but Zane kept all his feelings bottled off. He wanted to be strong in front of all of his fathers co-workers and all the dressed up students he could see any day of his entire highschool life.

All the highschoolers stuck around until the fire was put out and once the adults started to shoo them away, saying they should head back home. Most listened, leaving Kai, Jay, Lloyd, Cole, and Zane. They all stood together, waiting for Zane to hear if they knew anything about his father. No news ever came. They never found his body, dead nor alive. Their was no trace of him. All they know was that Borg was with him, but, unfortunately, Borg was not in good enough shape to be interviewed by any news reporters.

Soon enough, the five were also told to head home as well. They obeyed and all silently went their separate ways, none knowing what to say. They were all still scared and worried, but not for the same reason as before they knew what was burning down.

Once home, Zane disappeared into his room. He was too worried to get undressed or even get ready. He wanted to just curl up and scream and cry into a pillow or his blanket, which he ended up doing, minus the screaming. He ended up wrapping himself in his soft blanket and hiding hisface in his pillow, allowing the warm tears to rolls down his cold cheeks. He did this until he went onto his side and fell into a deep sleep, tired from what occurred that day...

 _"Please be safe Father... I love you too..."_


	4. Chapter 4

_Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick._

The old alarm clock ticked away like a time bomb as Zane laid wide awake. Despite how quickly he fell into a deep slumber, he woke up in a cold sweat at the witching hour. He usually didn't mind being awake at 3 am, but tonight he much rather be left alone, dreamless until he could forget what had happened the night before; however, in his dreams he could not escape the roaring fire and his father's voice.

Turning onto his side, Zane let out a sigh. Where in Ninjago could his father be? Is he even alive? If he was, Zane knew he would be home or at least get in contact with someone in the house and explain the short call between him and Zane. The words from call and the promise began to travel around Zane's brain, inserting itself into every thought. One thought stood out in particular.

 _"If I'm gone... find this journal."_

The journal.

What if Dr. Julien was gone? Was it time to hunt down the journal? Where in Ninjago would it be?

Zane shook his head and screamed silently into his hands. He couldn't be gone. It wasn't time. It's just a coincidence that Zane made that promise around the same time that his father disappeared...

Zane sat up with the urge to return to the scene of the fire and hunt down the journal, but his mind told him not yet. Dr. Julien wasn't confirmed to be gone. It wasn't time. His mind recited _"it's just a coincidence"_ over and over again.

 _"It's just a coincidence."_

 _"It's just a coincidence.."_

 _"It's just a coincidence..."_

Sighing, Zane ran his hands through his blonde bed hair. Looking at his covered arms, he stared right at the icy blue fabric of the costume he was too exhausted to take off. So he was no longer just lying in bed with a tied up mind, Zane snuck to his dresser and silently slipped out of the costume and settled into a cozy white pajama shirt and black sweatpants. Taking a look around, Zane continued to wonder about the journal. He knew that it wasn't in his room; it was most likely with Dr. Julien or was in the laboratory.

Sitting back down on his bed, Zane's eyes went straight toward his phone. Swiftly grabbing it, Zane was met with a notification-less screen. Unlocking it, his finger hovered over the phone app. Was it even worth it to try?

Deciding against it, Zane moved away from the phone app and went to Instagram. Immediately, he was drowned in pictures from the party and the aftermath; fellow classmates he followed posted pictures of their costumes and them with their friends, and he would once in awhile see a post from Kai posting random pictures from the setup, during the party, and him and his sister cleaning. As he scrolled through the never ending posts, he found what he wanted to avoid, but he couldn't look away. Recordings and pictures of the fire were burned into his feed, and there was no escape. Zane couldn't escape to his dreams nor to the digital world, but one last option.

He went to his inbox and saw both Cole and Jay were actually awake. Jay would always stay up way too late to play video games and Cole would always get too involved with whatever activity he chose to do that night, whether it be painting, playing video games, studying, or even scrolling through his feed.

Going into the group chat between just the three of them, Zane began to type away. He was ready to spill everything that was wrong, but immediately deleted the entire message; instead, he asked, _"Hey, can't sleep. What are you two up to?"_

With no wait time, Cole responded with a picture of a painting in progress.

 _"Listening to music and painting. How are u doing Frosty? Have u heard anything else from dad?"_

 _"Unfortunately not..."_

Jay then joined the conversation and said, _"oof nothing at all? ig he was at the lab?"_

 _"Yes, I believe so. I could be incorrect though since I have not seen him at all for the past week. All I heard from him was his message during the party."_

 _"Big oof but what was his message?"_

Before Zane could type a single thing, Cole answered _"He said "I love you son"."_

 _"Ooo mysterious~"_ Before Cole could criticize his message, Jay quickly deleted it and sent, _"Oof, I'm sorry. Hopefully Dr J comes back and explain himself. I gtg before I say smtg stupid. Bye~"._ He then went offline.

Zane was about to do the same, but a message in the private chat between him and Cole had a notification.

 _"Soooo sorry about Motormouth. His brian turns off after midnight. But if you want to talk to someone, Im here. Text, vc, or we can meet up irl and walk. Watever you want."_

 _"*brain *I'm *whatever lol I suck at typing"_

For the first time since he had gotten home, Zane felt his lips form a slight smile.

 _"Okay. I guess we can meet up and walk. Some fresh air may help clear my head. We can meet up at the school."_

 _"Coolio, sounds like a plan Frosty. I'll pick up some breakfast on the way, and maybe a Frosty from Wendy's just for u :)"_

Zane rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of defeat. Even if he did say that Cole didn't have to do that, he would still do it. All Zane could say was _"Fine, but I don't think they're open. I'll see you in a bit."_

With swift movements, he unplugged his phone and grabbed the nearest hoodie. He didn't feel like he had the time to change out of his pajamas; he did look like he was about to go out for a jog, so his outfit would be fine. After grabbing his shoes, he carried them with him, along with a sticky note with a random reason he wouldn't be home when everyone else woke up, as he snuck out of his room. Once he dropped off the note in the kitchen, he snuck out the front door, threw on his shoes, and began his journey down to the school.

 _ **AN: Shoot, I haven't touched this in so freaking long. Sorry about that to those who are actually interested, I didn't have the motivation by the time I finished ch 3 to continue onto ch 4. So I'm going to update this story and then my Secret Vigilante (I really need to think of a new title lol) story. Thank you to those who left reviews since they are a reason for why I have come back to update this story. Tysm. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter. The story will definitely get better and get going after this chapter. Enough rambling, hopefully next week I have the next chapter done.**_


End file.
